of God. Not so complete as that given through the mind of prophets, or
the life of Jesus Christ, but still a revelation of the Divine. Each
natural object, as it stood in Eden's untainted beauty, displayed some
aspect of Him, whom no man can see and live. The apple-tree among the
trees of the wood; the rose of Sharon: the lily of the vale; the cedar,
with its dark green foliage; the rock for strength; the sea for
multitudinousness; the heaven with its limpid blue, like the Divine
compassion, overarching all--these are some of the forthshadowings in
the natural world of spiritual qualities in the nature of God. The
vine was made the clinging, helpless plant it is, that it might forever
remind men of certain deep characteristics of the Divine nature.
I. THE VINE AND ITS BRANCHES.--_The unity of the vine_. The vine and
its branches constitute one plant. Some branches may be trailed along
the trellis-work outside the cottage door, others conducted through
hothouse after hothouse; yet one life, one stream of sap, one essential
quality and character pervades them all, from the dark root, buried in
the soil, to the furthest twig or leaf. Yonder branch, waving its
fronds high up against the hothouse glass, cannot say to that long
leafless branch hidden beneath the shelf, You do not belong to me, nor
I to you. No twig is independent of another twig. However different
the functions, root and branches, leaves and cluster, all together make
one composite but organic whole. So is it with Christ. All who are
one with Him are one with each other. The branches that were nearest
the root in the days of Pentecost are incomplete without the last
converts that shall be added in the old age of the world. Those
without these will not be made perfect.
This is the underlying truth of the holy Catholic Church. Men have
tried to show that it must be an outward and visible organization,
consisting of those who had received, through a long line of
apostolical succession, some mystic power for administering rites and
conferring absolution, together with those who came beneath the touch
of their priestly hands. That theory has notoriously broken down. But
the truth of which it is a grotesque travesty is presented in our
Lord's conception of the vine, deeply planted in the dark grave of
Joseph's garden, which had reached down its branches through the ages,
and in which every believing soul has a part. Touch Christ, become one
with Him in living union, abide in Him, and you are one with the
glorious company of the apostles, the goodly fellowship of the
prophets, the noble army of martyrs and the Church of the First-born,
whose names are written in heaven.
_The pliancy of the vine._--More than most plants it needs a
husbandman. It cannot stand upright like other fruit-trees, but
requires a skillful hand to guide its pliant branches along the
espaliers, or to entwine them in the trellis-work. It suggests a true
thought of the appearance presented to the world by Christ and His
Church.
Mrs. Hamilton King, in her description of the sermon preached in the
hospital by Ugo Bassi, on the eve of the great movement which, by the
expulsion of the Austrians, gave Italy to the Italians, specially
dwells on this. Down five wards the prisoners are lying on the
hospital-beds from which they will never rise again. To them the deep
voice of the hero-preacher tells the story of the vine: how "it is tied
to a stake, and if its arms stretch out, it is but cross-wise; they are
also forced and bound."
Thus it was with Christ. Never following His own way; always bound to
the imperative _must_ of the Father's will; yielded to the cross as a
willing Sufferer. And so it has been with His followers. Not strong
to stand alone, but always yielded to the Father's will, that He should
lead them whither He would--to a cross, if needs were; to persecution
and shame, if this would better serve His purpose; to a Gethsemane, if
that were the only gate to life.
Yield thyself to those loving hands. They may lead thee afar from thy
original purpose--twisting thee in and out with many a contortion;
fixing thee with nail and fastening; trailing thee over the wall, to
droop thy clusters to the hands of strangers. Nevertheless, be sure to
let Him have His way with thee; this is necessary for the
accomplishment of His purpose.
_The suffering of the vine._--When, in the spring, "the grace of the
green vine makes all the land lovely, and the shoots begin to wind and
wave in the blue air," the husbandman comes in with pruning-hook and
shears, and strips it bare of all its innocent pride. Nor is this all.
Even in the vintage it is not allowed to glory in the results of the
year, "the branches are torn down and trodden in the wine-press, while
the vine stands stripped and desolate."
So it has always been. The well-being of the world has been greatly
promoted through the Church, but always at an infinite cost to herself.
Christ's people have always been a suffering people, and it is in exact
proportion to their anguish that they have enriched mankind. They have
saved others, but not themselves. The red stream of blood that has
vitalized the world, has flowed from broken hearts.
"Measure thy life by loss instead of gain,
Not by the wine drunk, but by the wine poured forth;
For Love's strength standeth in Love's sacrifice,
And whoso suffers most hath most to give."
_The interdependence of vine and branches._--In God from eternity dwelt
a wealth of love, pity, and yearning over the souls of men, that could
not express themselves directly. There was no language for the
infinite passion of the Divine heart. Hence the gift of the Son,
through whom, when He had become flesh, the Infinite might express
Himself. But even this was not sufficient. The vine-root is not
enough in itself, it must have branches to carry its rich juices to the
clusters, so that these may hang free of each other in the sun and air.
Christ must have branches--long lines of saved souls extending down the
centuries--through which to communicate Himself to men.
We have seen how necessary the root is to the branches. Only from it
can our fruit be found. But let us humbly, yet gladly, believe that we
are also necessary to Christ. He cannot do without us. The Son wants
sons; angels will not suffice. Through redeemed men alone can He
achieve His eternal purpose. I hear the Root pleading for more and yet
more branch-life, that it may cover the world with goodly shadow and
fruit.
II. FRUIT OR NO FRUIT.--From all that has been said, it is clear that
the one purpose in the vine is fruit-bearing. See, here, how the
Divine Teacher accentuates it. "Fruit," "much fruit," "more fruit."
Nothing less will content Him in any one of us. For this we were taken
out of the wild vine in which we were by nature, and grafted into Him;
for this the regeneration of the Holy Ghost, and the discipline of
life; for this the sunshine of His love, and the dew of the Holy Ghost.
It becomes each seriously to ask, "Am I bringing forth fruit unto God?
There may be orthodoxy of doctrine, correctness in life, and even
heartiness of service; but is there fruit, much fruit, more fruit?"
_Fruit!_--This is the only condition of being retained in living union
with the Vine.
_Much fruit!_--Only thus will the Father be glorified.
_More fruit._--Otherwise there must be the repeated use of the knife.
Nowhere does the Lord contemplate a _little fruit_. A berry here and
there! A thin bunch of sour, unripened grapes! Yet it is too true
that many believers yield no more than this. He comes to us hungry for
grapes, but behold a few mildewed bunches, not fit to eat!
Where there is _no fruit_, there has been no real union with the Vine.
Probably you are a professor, but not a possessor; a nominal Christian,
an attendant at church or chapel, but not really one with Christ. True
union with Him produces a temper, a disposition, a ripe and mellow
experience which certainly indicates that Christ is within. You cannot
simulate the holy joy, the thoughtful love, the tranquil serenity, the
strong self-control, which mark the soul which is in real union with
Jesus; but where there is real abiding, these things will be in us and
abound, and we shall be neither barren, nor unfruitful in the knowledge
of our Lord Jesus Christ.
III. THE KNIFE AND THE FIRE.--"Every branch in Me that beareth fruit,"
the Father who is the Husbandman "purgeth it that it may bring forth
more fruit." Too many children of God, when passing through great
physical and other suffering, account it punishment. Nay, it is not
punitive, but purgative. This is the pruning-knife, cutting away the
shoots of the self-life, that the whole energy of the soul may be
directed to the manifesting of the life of the Lord Jesus. It may seem
a grievous waste to see the floor of the hothouse or vineyard littered
with fronds and shoots and leaves, but there need be no lament: the
branches of the autumn will well repay each stroke of that keen edge
with fuller, richer fruit. So we gain by loss, we live as we die, the
inward man is renewed as the outer decays.
The knife is in the Father's hand; let us never forget that. He will
not intrust this delicate and difficult work to man or angel. Shall we
not be in subjection to the Father of our spirits and live? Blessed be
the Father of our Lord Jesus, and our Father in Him. He that spared
not Christ may be trusted to do the best for us.
Employing the same word, the Master said, "Now ye have been pruned
through the word that I have spoken to you." Perhaps if we were more
often to yield ourselves to the pruning of the Word, we should escape
the pruning of sore pain and trial. If the work were done by the
golden edge of Scripture, it might make the iron edge of chastisement
needless. Therefore, when we take the Word of God in hand, let us ask
the great Husbandman to use it for the pruning away of all that is
carnal or evil, so that His life may have unhindered sway.
But if we will not bear fruit we must be taken away. We shall lose our
sphere of Christian service, and be exposed as hollow and lifeless
professors. The vine-branch that has no wealth of purple clusters is
good for nothing. Salt which is savorless is fit neither for the land
nor the dunghill. Vine-branches that bear no fruit are cast into the
fire. Professors that lack the grace of a holy temper, and the beauty
of a consistent life are taken away. "Men cast them into the fire and
they are burned."
These three years the Divine Husbandman has come hungrily seeking fruit
of thee, yet in vain. Nevertheless, He will spare thee for this year
also, that thou mayest mend thy ways. This is the reason of thy
multiplied anxieties; He is pruning thee. If thou bearest fruit, it
will be well, eternally well; but if not, then it is inevitable that
thou shalt be cut away as dead and useless wood.
XV
"Abide in Me, and I in you"
"Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself,
except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in
Me."--JOHN xv. 4.
These words are so familiar by constant repetition, that their power to
awaken the soul is greatly lessened. They go and come through ear and
mind, as a lodger who has gone and come with exactly the same
appearance and at precisely the same hours for years, and no one
notices him now, because there is nothing novel about him to awake
notice or remark. How good would it be if we could hear this tender
injunction for the first time. Next to this, let us ask the Divine
Spirit to rid it of the familiarity of long use, to re-mint it, and to
make it fresh and vital, that it may seem to us that we have never
before realized how much Jesus meant, when He said, _Abide in Me_.
Perhaps it may assist us, if we adopt another English word for _abide_,
and one which, in some respects even more neatly, and certainly in
sound, resembles the Greek. It is the word _remain_; so that we may
read the Master's bidding thus: _Remain in Me, and I in you_.
This word is often employed in the New Testament in connection with
house and home. "Mary abode [or remained] with Elizabeth for three
months"; and "There abide [or remain]," said our Lord, when giving His
disciples direction for their preaching tour, and referring to some
hospitable house which has been opened to welcome them. It is used
three times in that memorable colloquy which introduced John and Andrew
to their future Teacher and Lord; "Master," they said, "where abidest
[or remainest] Thou; He saith unto them, 'Come and ye shall see.' They
came therefore, and saw where He is remaining, and they remained with
Him that day." And again: "Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for
to-day I must remain in thy house." We are to remain in Christ as a
man stays in his home.
_It is inferred, of course, that we are in Christ._--It would be absurd
to bid a man remain in a house unless he were already within its doors.
We must be sure that we are in Christ. Naturally we were
outside--"Remember," says the Apostle, "that aforetime ye were separate
from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers from
the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the
world." We were shoots in the wild vine, partaking of its nature,
involved in its curse, threatened by the axe which lay at its root.
But all this is altered now. The Father, who is the Husbandman, of His
abundant grace and mercy, has taken us out of the wild vine and grafted
us into the true. "Of God are ye in Christ Jesus."
It is quite true that we repented of our sins, and turned toward God;
that we have believed in Christ, and taken His yoke; that we have found
rest under the shelter of His cross, and joy in expecting His advent;
but we must never forget that behind all these movements of our will,
and choice, and faith, were the willing and doing of God Himself. It
is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes. "Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath begotten us again
unto a living hope." What confidence this gives us! We are in Christ
by the act of God's grace and power, and surely He who put us in, can
keep us there. Did He not shut Noah into the ark, and keep him there
amid all the crash of the pitiless deluge! We have only to consent to
remain, and allow God to perfect that which concerneth us. Be
confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you,
will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.
_The stress which the Master lays on our abiding in Him._--He appears
to summon all His forces to accentuate His parting message. You always
reserve your most important injunctions to the last, that they may
remain fresh and impressive, as the train steams out of the station, as
the boat leaves the landing-stage; so Christ left this entreaty to the
last, that it might carry with it the emphasis of a parting message
forevermore. But note how He drives it home. Its keyword occurs
eleven times in eleven consecutive verses. He depicts the terrible
result if we do not abide: we shall wither, be taken away, and
consigned to the fire. He shows how utterly we shall miss the one end
of our existence, the glorification of the Father by fruit-bearing,
unless we strenuously and continuously abide. He allures by the
thought of the much fruit; by the assurance of success in prayer; by
the promise of fullness of joy, of love, and of blessedness. He
entreats, commands, exhorts, all in one breath. It is as though He
were to say, "Children, I am leaving you; there are many things I
desire for you, many commands to utter, many cautions, many lessons;
but I am content to leave all unsaid, if only you will remember this
one all-inclusive bidding, Abide in Me, remain in Me; stay where God
has put you; deepen, emphasize, intensify the union already existing
between you and Me. From Me is your fruit found. Without Me ye can do
nothing. Abide in Me, and I in you. Grow up into Me in all things,
which am the Head, rooted and built up in Me, and stablished by your
faith, even as ye were taught."
_There are many analogies to this appeal._--The sun says to the little
earth-planet, _Abide in me_. Resist the temptation to fly into space,
remain in the solar sphere, and I will abide in the formation of thy
rocks, the verdure of thy vegetation, and all living things, baptizing
them in my fire.
Abide in me, says the ocean to the alcove, that shows symptoms of
division from its waves. Keep thy channel unsilted and open, and I
will pour my fullness up to thy farthest shore, twice in every
twenty-four hours.
_Abide in me_: the vine says it to the branch, that it may impart
supplies of life and fruit; the air says it to the lung, that it may
minister ozone and oxygen to its cells; the magnet says it to the
needle, that it may communicate its own specific quality, and fit it to
guide across the ocean the mighty steamer, laden with the freight of
human life.
_Abide in me_: the artist says it to the novice; Edison would say it to
some young Faraday; the preacher to the student. Any man who is eager
to impart his ideas to coming time is glad when some young life, eager,
quick to receive formative impressions, presents itself. Here, says
he, is my opportunity of incarnating myself afresh, and still living,
speaking, painting, when my life is done. "Stay with me, young soul,
share my home, saturate yourself with my ideas and methods of
expression, go to no other fields to glean, and I will give my best
self in return."
So, also, the mother speaks to the child. If she is wise she will be
chary of handing it over to the nurse, or sending it away to the care
of strangers, except for the hours necessary for education. Companions
and games, books and studies, shall be within the influences of her
mother's love; and she, in return, will gladly bestow herself to the
eager life that waits on her every movement, look, and word.
In all these cases, it is always the stronger that pleads with the
weaker to abide, promising the communication to fuller life. Each, in
measure, says, in the words of the glorious Christ, "I am stronger,
wiser, fuller, better than you; all is mine that it may be yours,
therefore, abide in Me, and I will abide in you."
_Notice Christ's consciousness of sufficiency for the needs of
men._--It were blasphemous audacity to speak thus, if He were not more
than man. He affirms that there can be no life apart from Him; that
souls not united with Him wither on the forest floor. He says, that
fruit-bearing is only possible to those who receive from His fullness
grace for grace. He says, that to be in union with Him will secure
union with all holy souls. He says, that if His words are carefully
pondered and obeyed, we shall make no petition which His Father will
not grant. He says, that His love, in quality and quantity, is like
the love that God has toward Himself; that His commands take rank with
those of Deity. He offers Himself to all mankind in coming ages, as
their contemporary, and as the one sufficient source of life and
godliness. All these assumptions are made in the range of these
verses; and as we ponder them, we feel that the Speaker must be
conscious of being other than human, and as possessing those infinite
attributes which are the sole property of the Eternal.
Yet, who shall say that He has offered more than He can give? Have not
we tested Him in each of these particulars, and do not we, who have
come to Him by faith, know that in no one item has He been guilty of
exaggeration? We were dead, but behold, we live! We spent our
energies in profitless work; but now we bear fruit unto God. We were
lonely and isolated, but now have come to the heavenly Jerusalem, to
the innumerable company of angels, and to the Church of the Firstborn.
Our prayers were aimless and ineffective; but now we have the petitions
we desired. New hope and joy have filled our hearts, as the ruddy
clusters hang full and ripe in the autumn. Prove Him for yourself and
see if this shall not be so for you also. Only give yourself entirely
up to Christ. Abide in Him. Remain in Him. Let thought and speech
and life be bathed in the influences of His Holy Spirit; Let the sap of
His life flow where the sap of the self-life was wont to flow; and lo!
old things will pass away, and all things will become new.
_The law and method of abiding._--There are two currents always flowing
within our reach:
The Not I, and the I.
The last Adam, and the first.
The Spirit, and the flesh.
God has put us by His grace into the first of these. The Master says,
"Stop there." Much as when a father puts his little boy in the railway
carriage, _en route_ for home, and says, "My boy, stop where you are.
Do not get out; no change is necessary." We are in Christ by
regeneration and faith. We may not always be thinking about Him; but
we remain in Him, unless by unfaithfulness or sin we consciously and
voluntarily leave Him. And if we have left Him for a single moment, it
is always possible by confession and renewal to regain our old position.
This is confessedly an inadequate figure of speech. There is a sense
in which the member cannot be amputated from the body, and the soul
cannot be divorced from its union with Christ. But we are not dealing
now with our integral oneness with Christ for life, but with our
abiding union with Him for fruit-bearing and service. And again we
say, for those who are so immersed in daily business, as to be unable
for long together to keep their minds fixed on Christ, that their
abiding in Him does not depend on their perpetual realization and
consciousness of His presence, but on the faith that they have done and
said nothing inconsistent with the holy bond of fellowship.
You are in a lift until you step out of it, though you may not be
thinking of the lift. You keep on a road until you take a turning
right or left, although, engrossed in converse with your friend, you do
not think of the road. You are in Christ amid the pressure of daily
care, and the haste of business, so long as your face is toward the
Lord, your attitude that of humble submission, and your conscience void
of offence. During the day it is therefore possible at any moment to
say, "I am in Thee, O blessed Christ. I have not all the rapture and
passion of more radiant hours, but I am in Thee, because I would not by
a single act, leave Thy secret place." If at such a moment you are
conscious that you are not able to say as much, instantly go back over
the past few hours, discover the place when you severed yourself from
your Lord, and return.
Study Godet's beautiful definition of abiding: "It is the continuous
act by which the Christian lays aside all he might draw from his own
wisdom, strength and merit, to desire all from Christ by the inward
aspiration of faith."
Whenever, therefore, temptation arises to leave the words of Christ
(ver. 7), for the maxims of the world, step back, remain in Him, deny
yourself.
Whenever you are tempted to leave the narrow path of His commandments
(ver. 10), to follow the impulses of your own nature, reckon yourself
dead to these that you may _run_ in those.
Whenever you are tempted to forsake the holy temper of Christ's love,
for jealousy, envy, hatred, step back and say, I will not go out of my
hiding-place, I elect to remain in the love of God.
The one effort of life is therefore reduced to a persistent resistance
to all the suggestions of the world, the flesh and the devil; that we
should step out of that Blessed Man into whom the Father has grafted us.
Then He abides in us. He is strong where we are weak, loving and
tender where we are thoughtless, holy where we fail. He is in us as
wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption; and as the hope
of glory.
XVI
Prayer that Prevails
"If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye
will, and it shall be done unto you."--JOHN xv. 7.
Christ expected answers to His prayers, and in all His teaching leads
us to feel that we shall be able to obtain, through prayer, what
otherwise would not come to our hand. He knew all that was to be known
of natural law and the Father's heart; but notwithstanding His perfect
acquaintance with the mysteries of the Father's government, He said,
"Ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you."